🎵
In a year defined by mesmerizing breakout albums from Copenhagen-based avant-pop songwriters (Fine, Erika de Casier, Elias Rønnenfelt, et al.), scene veterans Smerz unexpectedly emerged as torchbearers for the city. Not only did they deliver an endlessly strange, playful, and inventive sophomore album in Big City Life, they also gave the scene what feels like its first true classic: the instantly timeless “You Got Time and I Got Money.” Quietly, two cheeky Norwegian art-school grads wrote the ultimate deconstructed slow jam: so romantic yet candid, elegant yet off-kilter, goofy but utterly sincere.
You Got Time and I Got Money feels like losing your voice duetting “Bittersweet Symphony” in a Chinatown karaoke bar, slow dancing with your high-school sweetheart for the last time on prom night, or falling hard for someone who still kind of needs to get their life together, often all at once.
I saw Smerz perform twice this year, and both nights, they closed their set with “You Got Time and I Got Money”. It feels like the type of song you can sing along to for the rest of your life.
You Got Time and I Got Money feels like losing your voice duetting “Bittersweet Symphony” in a Chinatown karaoke bar, slow dancing with your high-school sweetheart for the last time on prom night, or falling hard for someone who still kind of needs to get their life together, often all at once.
I saw Smerz perform twice this year, and both nights, they closed their set with “You Got Time and I Got Money”. It feels like the type of song you can sing along to for the rest of your life.
Dec 31, 2025